Gates, however, said he did not think it was possible to reduce US force levels to 100,000 by the end of the year as he had once hoped.

His comments appeared to put him at odds with General David Petraeus, the US commander in Iraq, who called for an indefinite pause in troop reductions after the last of the US "surge" brigades are withdrawn at the end of July.

President George W. Bush embraced Petraeus's recommendations in a speech earlier Thursday in which he said the general "will have all the time he needs" before make further reductions in US forces.

But Gates told the Senate Armed Services Agreement there would be a "brief pause for consolidation and evaluation."

"I do not anticipate this period of review to be an extended one, and I would emphasize that the hope, depending on conditions on the ground, is to reduce our presence further this fall," he said.

"If the conditions continue to improve in Iraq, as we have seen them improve for the last 14 or 15 months, then we believe the circumstances are in place for him (Petraeus) to be able to recommend continuing drawdowns," he said.

"But while I think we have used different words, that is my understanding and my expectation," he said.

The withdrawal of five surge brigades will reduce the size of the US force in Iraq from over 150,000 troops today to about 140,000 -- more than before the surge began in early 2007.

Admiral Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned that while Iraq is the US military's most pressing priority, it is not the only one.

"I need the rest of our military focused on the rest of our challenges, which are, in this dangerous world, many and formidable," he said.

Mullen said he was "deeply concerned" about Afghanistan, where the United States recently deployed 3,500 additional marines to help fill growing gaps in command requirements.

"The Taliban is growing bolder, suicide attacks are on the rise, and so is the trade in illegal narcotics," Mullen said.

"In this economy of force operation, we do what we can. But doing what we can in Afghanistan is not doing all that we should," he said.

earlier related report
US air strikes kill six in Baghdad Shiite bastion
Two US air strikes in Baghdad's embattled Sadr City district killed six people as fighting flared for a fifth straight day Thursday between Shiite militiamen and security forces hunting mortar and rocket teams.

Violence in other parts of the Iraqi capital and across the country killed another eight people, among them a policeman and a soldier, security and medical officials said.

An air strike mid-morning in the heart of Sadr City on a building crammed with oxygen cylinders -- which can be used to make roadside bombs -- killed two people and wounded four, the officials said.

They added an earlier air raid, around midnight, killed four and wounded six near Al-Albaith mosque in the centre of Sadr City, stronghold of Shiite radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr whose Mahdi Army militiamen are fighting Iraqi and US forces.

An AFP reporter who toured Sadr City in the afternoon said streets were shaken sporadically by the sound of automatic gunfire while loud explosions were heard from time to time.

The main streets were deserted. Residents said the roadways are primed with bombs placed by Shiite militiamen fighting US forces. US Apache helicopters were seen flying high overhead while the sound of warplanes could be heard.

Around 70 people have been killed and scores wounded since fresh clashes broke out in Sadr City on Sunday, according to security and medical officials.

The chief of the Sadr movement in Sadr City said residents were "under siege" and warned its militia were ready to take up arms again.

"Today, three million inhabitants of Sadr City are under siege. They are prevented from leaving and from reaching food supplies," Salman al-Fraiji told AFP.

"We will obey the orders of Moqtada al-Sadr but if the violence against the Iraqis continues, if the blood of Iraqis continues to be spilled, the ceasefire will definitely be lifted," he said, referring to a truce being observed by Sadr's Mahdi Army militia since August.

The US military says it is chasing "criminals" firing rockets into Baghdad and the heavily-fortified Green Zone where the Iraqi government and US embassy are based.

A US embassy official said military operations in Sadr City were succeeding in pushing back the rocket and mortar teams and that the heavy barrages of projectiles which had bombarded the Green Zone since March 23, killing two civilians and two US soldiers and wounding dozens, had subsided.

"Some rockets came in on Wednesday, but they were not very accurate," said the official, who asked not to be named.

"We're pushing them back, making it more difficult for them to hit us. We're making it difficult for them to work on their aim," the official told AFP.

US embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo said that since March 23, "there have been daily indirect fire attackz on the (Green Zone) on two days, March 24 and April 4. So far we have not received any indirect fire today (Thursday)."

Meanwhile, at least eight people were killed in attacks by insurgents across Iraq on Thursday, security officials said.

Gunmen dressed in Iraqi army uniforms stormed into the house of Musa Awad in Hawijah, near the northern oil city of Kirkuk, killing the municipal employee's two sons and wounding him and his wife, said police Captain Mahmood al-Juburi.

In another incident, two members of a local anti-Qaeda front were killed by gunmen in the town of Tuz Khurmatu, south of Kirkuk, police said.

In central Baghdad, a policeman and a civilian were killed when a roadside bomb struck a passing police patrol, while gunmen shot dead two people, including an Iraqi soldier, in separate attacks in the southern city of Amara.

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